Wednesday, 2 August 2017

By RICHARD MUNGUTIMore by this AuthorUniversities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) officials at a past press briefing. They have obtained a court order stopping SRC from implementing a new pay structure for academic staff. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

A court has stopped the implementation of a new pay structure for all academic staff of public universities by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

The Employment and Labour Relations Court suspended the implementation of a job evaluation report by SRC for the academic staff in universities.

Justice Nelson Abuodha said the new job salary levels proposed by SRC does not factor academic qualifications of the teaching staff.

Certifying the case filed by lawyer Titus Koceyo as urgent, Justice Abuodha said the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) input was not included before the final job evaluation was arrived at.

Once implemented, it will see managers and administrators earn more than senior teaching staff and PhD holders, who train and teach students, conduct research, consultancy and community services.

JOB EVALUATION

The Judge warned SRC that it will be held in contempt if it defies the court order and proceeds to implement the evaluation report, which will affect the salaries of 9,500 lecturers and professors.

Mr Koceyo said SRC engaged the services of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) to undertake a job evaluation for academic staff in all the public universities without involving the petitioner, Uasu, a key stakeholder.

He said there is a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that was negotiated by Uasu and signed in court.

CBA

“The CBA will be adversely affected by the latest job evaluation by the SRC contrary to the law,” the lawyer said.

Mr Koceyo submitted that the exclusion of Uasu officials in the job evaluation process infringes on their rights to collectively bargain as guaranteed by the Constitution.

“It is imperative that SRC carries out its mandate consultatively by involving all the stakeholders such as Uasu, since the job evaluation touches directly on the terms and conditions of service of academic staff,” he said.

While evaluating the new jobs levels for the universities staff PwC used the Paterson tool, which the lawyer argued is skewed towards manual and administrative positions and a disadvantage to academic qualifications of the teaching staff.

The court heard that SRC has secretly forwarded the report to the management of public universities.